Kwame Jackson

Kwame Jackson may have lost to Bill Rancic in the first season of The Apprentice, but he's still a winner. The Harvard Business School graduate has taken his 15 minutes of reality TV fame and run with it. Jackson, 30, is in the process of writing a book (tentatively titled Betting on Yourself), is putting deals together with his company, Legacy Holdings LLC (which he founded with two college friends), and will host his own CNN business-themed show in the spring.

The days are getting shorter, the air is cooling (well, in theory, anyway) ... as fall approaches, so does the new season of reality shows. As we get ready for the ninth installment of Survivor (on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu, beginning Sept. 16), we asked All-Stars winner Amber Brkich: Any advice for the new contestants? "My advice for them? Patience is one of the things that is going to get you to the end," says Brkich, who took the million-dollar All-Stars prize in May just after becoming engaged to fellow Survivor Rob Mariano on live TV. "That involves being able to hold your aggression and frustrations in and not get in fights with people. If you get into a fight with someone, that can be a reason to vote you off." Anything else? "Appreciate the fact that you're out there," she adds. "You beat out thousands of people who wanted to be there. The fact that you appreciate it will give you enough motivation to try even harder to win it. And let somebody else do the dirty work for you."

BOOTED: The Apprentice runner-up Kwame Jackson, 29, who was scheduled to judge the Miss Universe pageant Tuesday night in Quito, Ecuador, was removed from the judging panel and asked to return next year after he was seen participating in "inadvertent interaction" with contestants at the official delegate hotel, say reports. Jackson says he was meeting friends who were staying at the JW Marriott Hotel when he greeted a few of the comely contestants. "I honestly had no idea that (the hotel) was off limits to judges, nor that it was the official delegate hotel," said Jackson. An NBC spokesperson said in a statement Kwame agreed to step down. The pageant is co-owned by Trump and NBC.

So Russell Crowe walks into a bar ... No, really. While in Toronto filming The Cinderella Man, Crowe took in a performance by singer-songwriter Slaid Cleaves at nightspot Hugh's Room. Slimmed down for his role (as Depression-era fighter Jim Braddock) and unassuming, Crowe, who arrived right before the second set, surprisingly attracted little notice. He even agreed to sign a Master and Commander DVD for a Rounder Records rep who bought him a drink – but only if it was the deluxe edition. "Because I might have only just signed certain letters of my name otherwise," he quipped.